1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a repellent agent effective against hematophagous or biting insects such as mosquitoes, horseflies, fleas, ticks, lice, and the like. The present invention also relates to a perfume composition containing the repellent agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many diseases are known which are mediated by pests, particularly insects, and in particular diseases caused by hematophagous insects have become a serious problem.
For example, mosquitoes carry malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, filariasis, or the like; fleas carry pest or the like; and chiggers carry trombiculiasis or the like. Most of these harmful living things play a role specific to the propagation of a pathogen such as viruses, rickettsia, bacteria, or the like.
Specifically, hematophagous insects and ticks which have sucked the blood of an animal having a disease and which carry a pathogenic organism therein next suck the blood of other persons, livestock, and pets, and thereby infect them with the pathogenic organism. Their infectious power is immeasurable.
When blood is sucked by a hematophagous insect, unpleasantness such as itching, rash, dermatitis, or the like occurs at the site where the blood is sucked.
Thus, the damage induced by such hematophagous insects is immense, and various methods of using repellents for controlling them are known.
A number of effective components for repellents against harmful insects have heretofore been developed and provided. Examples of the commercially available repellents are N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, dialkyl phthalate, and the like, but none of them shows a sufficient repellent effect.
In particular, there is a problem with respect to duration of the repellent effect.
In order to solve this problem, there are disclosed as effective components for repellent agents against harmful insects, p-menthan-3,8-diol and derivatives thereof (Japanese Patent Application Publication (kokoku) No. 3-80138), p-menthan-1,2-diol, caren-3,4-diol, pinen-2,3-diol (U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,136), and the like.
Further, in order to improve the duration of the repellent effect there are disclosed a method of adding p-menthan-3,8-diol to a known effective component for repellent agents, N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-133906), a method of microcapsulating p-menthan-3,8-diol (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-176404), and a method of supporting p-menthan-3,8-diol on an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-191201).
However, attempts to make the repellent effect of these repellent agents last longer have not been sufficient, and there is still room for improvement.
When a spray-type composition containing a repellent agent is used, a remarkable effect can be attained immediately after spraying, but the effect lasts only for a short period of time. It is necessary to spray repeatedly many times to expect a long-term effect.
A new repellent agent is desired which maintains an excellent repellent effect over a long period of time so that repeated spraying becomes unnecessary.